Saturday, April 4, 2015

#AtoZChallenge--Domestic Goddess...Party of One!--Homemade Seasonings

There's a specific letter for each day and then you pick your own theme.

Our Theme: herder of cats, burner of soup
Basically...a day in the life of and all the things I love

Bwaha. Okay so not quite a cooking post but a kitchen post? Something I've been doing lately is trying to eat healthier and more "from scratch" so I know what's in what I'm eating and it's exactly how I like it. And I saw this idea a bit back and thought it was brilliant. Did yall know that Parmesan lids fit perfectly on...mason jars?

Yep.

Something I'm making at home now instead of buying is my seasoning packets. Chili seasoning, taco seasoning, etc and things like hot chocolate. So instead of buying packets of them at the store where they have all kinds of added things in or might not be exactly to my taste I'm using mason jars and filling them with the ingredients I use for whatever it is and storing that. It's a nice time saver too. Instead of having to pull out 9 spices each time I make chili I just grab the jar and...I have my seasonings ready to go. Totally makes me feel all Domestic Goddessy.

A couple years back I set out to make the perfect vegetarian chili. I made like 40 batches of chili one summer and this is what I landed on. I make this...often but it's a pain pulling out and measuring each of the ingredients so I put together this container and damn it's easy. The only 'spice' I left out was the brown sugar which I add in at the end of cooking. Then each time I want chili I just add in 2 tablespoons and 1/2 teaspoon of the mix and I'm good to go.

Combine the following--

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon oregano

I like mine fairly mild so this recipe worked for me. And this recipe originally makes enough for one pound of meat. I tend to go lighter on mine though. So when I grab the seasoning I usually use about 1 1/2 tablespoons on my veggie crumbles. The great thing is you can add however much you want so play around on that until you get the right mix.

Combine the following:

1 tablespoon chili powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (I subbed in cayenne pepper)

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

Usually I make hot chocolate from Nutella Hot Chocolate but it's best made in a pan on the stove and I like having something quicker and microwavable. So...whipped up a batch of hot chocolate powder too.

Combine the following

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons HERSHEY'S Cocoa

Dash salt

Then when you're ready to make a cup add a little over two tablespoons to a cup of milk and heat. Again this is one I play around with on actual amount used per cup. I'm usually use about a tablespoon of the mixture for a cup of cocoa.

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